EMPORIA, Kansas (AP) -- Rosa Perez
chats easily in Spanish, but the 15-year-old -- having arrived in the United
States more than a decade ago -- never learned to write in her native tongue.

That's a skill she and a growing number
of Hispanic students in public schools and colleges are working on in classes
often called Spanish for Native Speakers, which aim to make students biliterate
as well as bilingual.

For Perez, who attends Emporia High
School, the early results have led to writing letters to her aunts and cousins
in Mexico. Her parents, both workers at a Tyson Foods Inc. meat packing plant,
were thinking ahead to a potential career for their daughter when they
encouraged her to take the class.

"They said, since other people get good
money translating, maybe I could do that," said Perez, who wants to become an
elementary school teacher and work with Spanish-speaking youngsters.

Hospitals, schools, police departments
and many corporations are clamoring for bilingual workers, and language experts
believe classes like the one Perez takes could help fill the need. By 2050,
studies suggest, Hispanics will constitute 25 percent of the nation's work
force.

The classes have been offered since the
1980s by many schools in the southern border states such as Texas and
California. They have grown increasingly popular, however, as more and more
immigrants moved north, to the Midwest and even the Northeast.

Ana Roca, who teaches Spanish and
linguistics at Florida International University in Miami, recently offered
advice to a college professor in Maine about teaching native Spanish speakers.

"Now, a few years ago, if you had told
me someone from Maine would want to meet to talk to me about issues regarding
starting a Spanish for native speakers section, I would have said, 'Maine. That
doesn't sound likely.' But it is," said Roca, who co-edited a book, "Mi lengua:
Spanish as a Heritage Language in the United States."

Academic vision

The American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages estimates about 141,000 middle- and high-schoolers in 2000
were enrolled in Spanish classes designed specifically for native Spanish
speakers. The group is conducting another survey this year and expects a
significant increase.

At the high school level, the courses
often resemble traditional language arts classes with an emphasis on grammar,
vocabulary and writing instruction in Spanish. At the elementary level, the
classes often include English and Spanish speakers learning one portion of the
curriculum in one language and the rest in the other language, said Marty
Abbott, the council's education director.

When done well, she said, the classes
can help Spanish speakers -- a group with traditionally lower-than-average test
scores and above-average dropout rates -- connect with their schools. She said
there has been a rise in native Spanish speakers taking Advanced Placement
Spanish courses -- and succeeding.

"I think that helps students see an
academic vision for themselves, that there's a reason to stay in school," she
said.

The classes aren't without their
challenges. Students come from different Spanish-speaking countries and
different regions, each with its own dialect. Some children arrive in class just
days after arriving in the United States, while others were born in the United
States and grew up speaking mostly English.

In Emporia, teacher Daniel Sanchez's
class includes five or six newcomers. Some don't have an academic background in
English or Spanish, leaving them struggling to write in either language. Sanchez
switches back and forth between English and Spanish to reach both newcomers and
the students who grew up in America.

Sanchez talks with his students about
his own struggles learning English. He immigrated to the United States from
Mexico when he was in high school so his parents could work at a meatpacking
plant in Garden City in western Kansas. He also worked at the packing plant
during his last semester of high school and summers in college.

"If a few students can benefit from
learning a more academic Spanish that can be used in the work force, it's always
a benefit," he said, "not just to a certain group but to everyone."